Title: Divine in Lingerie
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 7/25/18
Length:  164 pages
Series:  Lingerie #9

Overview

My family tried to accept the man I love.

But they couldn’t.

Now I’ve lost the love of my life.

I try to move on, but it’s hard to find something to live for.

I don’t want any man but him.

But when Conway becomes the target of the Skull Kings, my life is turned upside down. They want my brother dead, and my family is doing everything they can to protect him.

Will Bones protect him too?

My Thoughts

i’m heart broken. Really heartbroken. This is one of those stories that has ended in a way that i absolutely didn’t see coming and i almost wanted to throw my iPad across the room. I don’t know how to go on with this series because i’m not happy.

What’s new with this installment though is that we are beginning to see more stories woven into this one. Where the books have been focused primarily on one main couple, we see a blending here, not just with Vanessa’s parents (father mostly) but with Conway/Sapphire as well as with Carter. Conway/Sapphire are months away from having their baby and at the same time they are planning their wedding and we see how that plays out.

The main undertone with this story though is the endless attempts at getting the Barsetti’s to accept Bones. He’s doing everything in his power to show the family that he’s honest and loyal and different than all their preconceived notions. He continues to take their insults, their punches, he works harder than anyone else at the winery to prove himself, yet it seems like there’s no way to make progress. Vanessa pleas her case that there’s a sexist double standard because neither Conway nor Crow/Cane are any different than Bones – they’re all quite the same, and yet, her father admits this and doesn’t care.

She begs, pleads, and just when we think that all hope is lost, and that there’s no chance of her family ever accepting him, they agree and make an effort. We want to celebrate this moment, but it’s short lived because Crow decides to ask Bones a question that he knows the answer of, but doesn’t want to hear. How they fell in love since Vanessa and Bones withheld some of that information. That’s when our world is shaken, and Bones is banished.

My heart literally broke from this point on. Neither Vanessa nor Bones can survive without the other, yet they don’t have a choice. Bones won’t ever take Vanessa away from her family so he makes sure that she’s taken care of when he leaves. He buys her a gallery and a place to live ,and then leaves her forever.

The turn in theme that we have from this point on shows us the resilience that people can have, especially when they are at their lowest. Vanessa knows that she’ll never find someone like Bones, someone that is in her soul as deep and it’s a struggle to move on. The strong powerful confident woman that we knew is gone and it seems like she’s gone forever.

Bones on the other hand goes back to his life of loneliness, going back into his shell, spending more time working missions than living life – and when he’s not on a mission, living at the bottom of the bottle of scotch. He ends up drinking himself sick, flipping his car and almost dying….but this doesn’t really change things.

This is a bleak and moody story – no hope is left for either of them, and it’s a shame since they were picture perfect. Vanessa’s family prods her endlessly to find someone else, and through a series of coincidences, she does find someone and starts to build something new. I’m NOT happy about it. Just to be clear here. And when Bones sees this, he has closure and walks away too.

From this point though, we get a new journey, and one that takes a very dark path. We know that Bones lifted his vendetta against the Barsettis – regardless of if he’s with Vanessa or not, but apparently, someone crossed someone in the wrong way, or did something they weren’t supposed to, and at the end, we see a hit being ordered. This is the intro that we get to Carter’s story. He’s contacted to get someone from the Skull Kings auction, and even though he and Conway decided they’re out, he’s lured back in and learn quickly that something fishy is happening.

So, like i said at the beginning, I’m really upset about this story. Where i wanted the story to go has been completely flipped, and what i want to happen looks like it’s gone for good. I also think that we’re now on a darker path, relationships torn apart, and the inevitable death of someone that we’ve come to love is on the horizon. After seeing that there were still several more installments to the series – i can assume that things will continue to get complicated, and i think that while i’m not thrilled with the trajectory with some, the theme and tone is a nice change and i’m impressed that Ms Sky was able to accomplish this. So……i’m off to book 10 because i’ve been sucked in yet again! Enjoy!